From 'parked' to 'cabbage': Brits have more than 500 words for 'drunk' – so what's your favourite?
- British people have 546 different words for 'drunk', according to researchers
- Almost any word can be used to mean drunk, as long as it ends with an '-ed'
If you've ever felt 'gazeboed', 'parked' or completely 'crabbed' after a night out, this may not come as a surprise.
Linguistic researchers have discovered that virtually any noun can be turned into a “drunkonym” – a synonym for intoxicated – by simply adding “ed” to the end.
The research found that we have a whopping 546 words formally defined as drunk, including 'trolleyed', 'hammered', 'welllied' and 'stampigged'.
It confirms a theory first suggested by comedian Michael McIntyre, who said Brits can understand any word as drunk if it is preceded by “I'm all…”
Professor Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, from Chemnitz University in Germany, thinks this could be due to Britain's deep-rooted culture of social drinking and Monty Python-style absurdist humor.
Researchers have discovered that Brits have 546 words for drunk and that almost any word can be used as long as it ends with '-ed' (stock image)
She said: 'In English there are an extremely large number of words that can mean drunk, and more can be formed by simply adding 'ed' to the end.
'It means that almost every word in Britain can automatically inherit the meaning 'drunk' from context.
'This humorous adaptation of words is only possible because of the way sentences are constructed in English, and because the British are very fond of witty puns. It wouldn't work in German, for example.'
She said that the funny effect of drunkonyms is often achieved by their indirectness, adding: “For example, 'gazeboed' and 'carparked' are funny because there is no direct relationship between the base word and the meaning 'drunk'.”
Professor Sanchez-Stockhammer said indirectness is also present in other forms of playful language, such as Cockney rhyming slang, which includes drunken names such as 'Brahms' and 'Schindler's' – short for 'Brahms and Liszt' and 'Schindler's list'. both of which rhyme with 'pi**ed'.
If you've ever felt 'gazeboed', 'parked' or completely 'crabbed' after a night out, this may not come as a surprise. Linguistic researchers have discovered that virtually any noun can be turned into a 'drunkiem' – a synonym for intoxicated – by simply adding 'ed' to the end (stock image)
She added: 'We studied in Britain for a year and saw British culture first-hand. Drunken names fit well with the humorous British view on drinking and life in general.'
The research, published in the Yearbook of the German Association for Cognitive Linguistics, found that English speakers regularly use a range of alternative words for 'drunk'.
By the time Brits reach adulthood, most will have experienced so many different drunken names that they can even recognize unfamiliar words ending in 'ed' as 'drunk' in many contexts.
Although excessive alcohol consumption can have negative consequences, Britons typically discuss drunkenness in a light-hearted manner, the researchers added.